Thursday’s movers: Apple ends in red on price cut

Herbalife retreats as Bill Ackman makes his case

GregMorcroft

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Shares of Jabil Circuit Inc., NYSE Euronext and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. made big moves during U.S. trading Thursday, while Apple Inc. and Herbalife Ltd. were among top trending tickers.

Top tickers trending

$AAPL: Apple
AAPL, +1.72%
shares closed in negative territory after Bernstein Research cut its price target to $750 from $800. “Apple’s growth is slowing. It has to - let’s not fool ourselves,” said Toni Sacconaghi in a note. But the company is still in a good position due to its momentum in smartphones and tablets, he said.

Thursday being the eve of the end of the world, according to some who still cling to the belief that the Mayan calendar foretells some cataclysmic global event, there were quite a few tweets referencing gold, apocalypse and the Mayans.

@ldelevingne: Apparently, the world ends tomorrow. Short $APPL? Long $GLD? Macro hedge funds, this is your time to shine!

@johbus: Mayans are cashing in their $GLD and $SLV for one last blow-out....

$HLF: Herbalife
HLF, +0.21%
shares remained under siege as Pershing Square Capital Management’s Bill Ackman took the stage to expound upon why he has a short position in the stock. The hedge fund manager again referred to the company as a pyramid scheme and then turned over the presentation to another Pershing analyst, Shane Deneen, according to Barron’s. See Barron’s live blog of Ackman’s presentation

Herbalife logo

Herbalife fell by double digits on Wednesday in response to reports that it is the latest stock to join Ackman’s hit list.

The Los Angeles-based company struck back by claiming Ackman owns put options that are due to expire, a claim he has denied.

“An extraordinary number of puts on our stock are due to expire this Friday. We previously learned this activity was pegged to some kind of ‘significant event,’ ” said Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Johnson in a statement.

“Mr. Ackman suddenly announced today that he will make a presentation on Herbalife on Thursday, the day before the puts expire.”

Johnson also rejected Ackman’s characterization of Herbalife as a pyramid scheme, adding, “Make no mistake: Today’s announcement isn’t about Herbalife’s business model. It’s about Bill Ackman’s business model.”

@W6VA: Mayan end of world came early for $HLF.

@BryanMortenson: Chanos, Einhorn, and Ackman all short $HLF. Watch Ichan float a buyout rumor, then sit back and laugh. $$

Gainers

CarMax Inc.
KMX, -0.94%
shares rose 9% after reporting third-quarter profit rose to 41 cents a share, up from 36 cents earned in the same period a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had forecast the car retailer would earn 39 cents a share, according to a FactSet survey.

NYSE Euronext
US:NYX
soared 34% as the parent of the New York Stock Exchange agreed to be bought by IntercontinentalExchange Inc.
ICE, -0.34%
for about $8.2 billion in cash and stock. ICE’s offer values NYSE at $33.12 a share, a 38% premium over Wednesday’s closing price. ICE to buy NYSE for $8.2 bln

Decliners

Amicus Therapeutics Inc.
FOLD, -1.85%
shares plunged 47%. The company and GlaxoSmithKline PLC
GSK, -0.59%
jointly said that a late-stage study of a treatment for Fabry disease didn’t meet its primary goal.

Shares of Carnival Corp.
CCL, +2.87%
shed 5.3% after the cruise ship operator reported fourth-quarter profit sank more than 50% to $93 million, or 12 cents a share, from $217 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier. Carnival’s Q4 profit down 57%

GameStop Corp.
GME, +1.03%
shares fell 5.2%, narrowing earlier losses. Analysts at Piper Jaffray lowered the retailer’s fiscal 2013 revenue estimate to $9.1 billion from $9.3 billion as well as their same-store sales outlook, due in part to slowing sales of Wii U.

“We are incrementally cautious around sales of the Wii U during 2013 following checks performed across the U.S.,” said the analysts in a report.

“We spoke to retailers between Sunday 12/16 and Tuesday 12/18 including Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart. Our checks suggested the Wii U is not sold out at retail despite limited supply from Nintendo. The Wii U has several technical problems including inadequate storage (i.e., only 16 and 32GB). While remaining neutral rated, we are incrementally cautious on GME shares at current levels given our pessimistic expectations for the Wii U.”

Intuitive Surgical Inc.
ISRG, -0.07%
fell another 5.3%. Citron Research claimed that the high-earnings multiple it gets from the Street doesn't align with its “track record of excessive and unjustified marketing claims.” Citron also noted that there is an “utter lack of clinical evidence of superior medical outcomes when using its product for surgery and the gathering storm of legal liability accruing to the company due to its failure to adequately disclose risks prior to its technology causing adverse surgical outcomes.”

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